Toaster355

That orbital tug looks pretty familiar...

August 17th, 2014 Ares 8 | Kibo Exposed Facility _____________________ Bob: "See you soon, '8!" A Jupiter 130 heads into space with no Orion, instead carrying one of the final Freedom components; the Kibo Exposed Facility. The crew of Ares 8 eagerly wait to follow it into orbit in a couple hours. The protective fairing of Jupiter detaches from the vehicle, exposing the payload to the vacuum of space. Mounted to a modified Orion SM, KES carries another addition to the station; miniRAV, mounted to the very front of the stack. miniRAV will manipulate scientific payloads for the Kibo Science Facility. ____________________ After a couple rendezvous burns, the spacecraft slowly crawls towards the largest Kerbal-made object in space. Once parked by Kibo, RAV 2 swiftly leaves her spot on the station to attach to KES. Once attached, the Service Module is ditched. RAV 2 guides KES onto the grapple fixture on Kibo, where they will wait for the crew of Ares 9. _____________________ August 17th, 2014 Ares 9 _____________________ Commander Carbert Kline Pilot Neilbald Baker Mission Specialist Jesdas Dunn Payload Specialist Bob Koch _____________________ Bob: "Here we come, '8!" _____________________ After a couple hours and a few rendezvous burns, the crew of Ares 9 draws nears the massive orbital outpost. Jesdas: "Ground, we've got a good hard capture up here. Great to be back. I really wish Digee could've been here with us." _____________________ RAV 2 is fired back into life as it manipulates KES back to behind Kibo. Jesdas leaves the airlock and rushes to payload. She draws her electric drill and permanently attaches KES to the station. Many cables are attached as well for sharing power and such. _____________________ Jesdas returns to Freedom, where her and her crew head to bed, just as they pass behind the planet, concluding Ares 8 and their day. _____________________ Remember when I was apologizing for being inactive for only a week? Heh... I'm sorry if you all were underwhelmed. I have never been in less of a Kerbal mood these past couple months, and still might not be for more. However, no matter how much of a Kerbal mood I am in, I will NEVER abandon this thread. I will keep going until I accomplish my final goal... Thanks for Reading!

I am so sorry for the wait!!! Ares 8/9 will be finished and out tomorrow or Sunday

I'm sorry for overpromising and underdelivering a couple weeks ago The flights will be out soon, hopefully not in 2 weeks again! Also, a bit of an embarrassing question... Why the hell are my profile pictures so low-res once uploaded??? How do I fix this???

Dammit, Discord! Does this mean we have to replace every image we used Discord for in the past with Imgur?

That is really strange; I can't see the pics in my signature either, but I can see the Ares 8 + 9 teaser. I'll try re-uploading and replacing them all in a bit.

Ares 8 + 9 Soon THANK YOU FOR TOTM AGAIN! ____________________ Happy late Valentina day! I know, It's been almost 2 months since my last post here. I was just suffering from some massive burnout and the forums pooped the bed. However, I am attempting to heal from it and you can expect the next post within a week; and now you can look forward to 1440p screenshots going forward!

Yeah, that's true. Cheap HOTAS' don't have nearly as many buttons, let alone hat switches, for proper combat. However, and I'm not sure if you know this or not, but you can use the shift, ctrl, and alt keys to more than triple the keybinds you can have on your HOTAS! that way you can still keep your hands on your it most of the time, only reaching for the keyboard to press modifiers. As for the landing tips... I'm thinking we can get each others' Discords and fly together! It will be easier to help you out if we are both communicating in real time, and we can dogfight each other and stuff. But it's up to you I'm just toaster355.

Wait, are you not flying with a HOTAS? I do NOT recommend flying with a mouse and keyboard; even a 30 dollar stick or 70 dollar HOTAS will do the job infinitely better than a keyboard. For the keybinds not working, I'm not sure. Though I will add that the brakes on combat jets like Hornets are quite ineffective compared to many civilian planes, as they are only designed for landing on long military runways or trapping on carriers and you may not be used that.

Yeah, that is pretty strange. It didn't notify me either when Freedom was nominated in December or DIRECT this month. I only discovered that I was nominated in December when @Kerbalsaurus and @TwoCalories congratulated me in both of my threads (thank you again, guys!), and now when I looked at my DIRECT thread and saw "totm feb 2024" near the top.

Oh, sweet! I'm about to start learning the Strike Eagle. I'd love to help you though Nope, not a mistake, haha. As realistic as the manuals are, I don't think I've ever used them; I imagined they are a pain to search through, and you seem to have confimed that. Watching videos is just an easier way to learn the modules you fly (especially 60 second tutorials, gosh people that make those are saints) and that's what I've been doing for years.. Good job. we were indeed getting off topic but you made the right call.

Thank you again! I knew you would, haha. You would LOVE the DCS F/A-18C module if you're willing to learn it. Not sure if I'm gonna keep it though, as I'm still toying with a new profile picture.

Congrats to all you talented winners! And THANK YOU all so much again!!! Very glad you all still care about and enjoy my work here! I'm aware I've been gone for over a month now. But don't worry, I've almost finished healing from my intense burnout and I will make a comeback soon.

Yeah... I feel the exact same way. Just not really in a Kerbal mood (especially how dreadfully long the load times are and how horribly optimized the first game is compared to a sim like DCS (even Super Mario 64 even feels like it was more optimized than KSP), even with a pretty fast computer like mine), and the forums have decided die recently, which is a horrible combo for us mission reporters. Hopefully the Kerbal drive will eventually return. Happy 2024 though, everyone!

Yeah, it was a bit expensive to pay for the HOTAS, TrackIR, PC upgrades, and modules. But trust me, yes! There are many, many multiplayer servers and many different things to learn in each module. I've had a ton of fun learning and flying in the past year.

Happy 2024!!! ____________________ I hope you all had a great holiday season, I know I did! My birthday is today as well I've wanted to post this for a couple days now, but the forums have basically been having a stroke. I know it's been over a week since my last mission report here, I'm sorry for being so inactive. Due to issues with cooling my new i7-11700F processor (or an instability of some kind in my new system), KSP crashes within 10 minutes every time I boot the game. Quick missions take over half an hour to design/build, fly, take pretty screenshots, rendezvous, and return. Longer missions can take more than an entire hour and sometimes over 2! It's incredibly frustrating trying to do a mission when my PC crashes every 10 minutes, so there will unfortunately be no mission updates until I purchase an AIO or find a way around this issue with crashing. And once again, I'm sorry. Enjoy some random screenshots of other games I've been playing: Off topic questions and comments about anything here are encouraged! I like talking with you guys

Yep, just use the Saturn Mobile Launcher pad and tweak the exhaust hole to fit your launch vehicle.

Just put it in your Google Drive, then share it and make sure anybody with the link can see it, and put the link in a post here.

Right on! EVE Volumetrics are REALLY worth the money; if you have 5 USD to spare and have a decent computer, do not hesitate to head over to Blackrack's Patreon and get those clouds.

Sorry I didn't do this yesterday! Was busy with Christmas stuff; here is a rough recreation of my PFP: Merry Christmas!

Christmas Special _____________________ December 23rd, 2013 Ares 7 | Apollo 8-Lunar Flyby ___________________ Payload: Orion 006 ___________________ Crew: Commander Jebediah Kerman Pilot Valentina Kelly Mission Specialist Bill Kirk Payload Specialist Calbart Campbell ___________________ The Jupiter series of rockets were extremely affordable; saving on billions, compared to what would have been spent on vehicles in say the Constellation Program. All the money saved can go to other areas of the space program now; areas like the Jupiter Upper Stage, the Altair Lunar Lander, and a new launcher for the next vehicle in the Jupiter rocket family; The Jupiter-246. This new vehicle has a forth RM-69 (formerly known as a Space Shuttle Main Engine), and most significantly: a second stage; the Jupiter Upper Stage (JUS), raising the vehicle's height by nearly 50%, and increasing the payload capacity to over 100 tons to LEO, and 79 tons on a TLI with two launches (these are obviously much less in KSP, as nearly everything is smaller in-game). This new vehicle now allows Kerbalkind to send crew back to the Moon. So today, 4 brave Kerbonauts will ride in Orion, back to our celestial neighbor that has illuminated the night sky and inspired Kerbals to explore the the universe for thousands of years. "LIFTOFF of the maiden flight of the Jupiter-246!!!" "4 brave Kerbals, riding on a massive trail of fire, will fly back to our celestial neighbor for the first time since Apollo!!!" All 4 RM-69s have expended all of their propellant, and the vehicle has not yet reached orbital velocity due to the increased mass of the new vehicle. However, the JUS will give the vehicle the final push it needs to reach orbit. "Jupiter Upper Stage ignition." "JUS Shutdown. Jupiter is in a safe orbit!" The launch may be finished, but the mission has only just begun. The JUS lights up it's engines again for a short burn, to raise the perigee. The vehicle coasts for a couple orbits, verifying everything is ready for the Lunar journey. Another water tank was flown with Orion, for extra safety and to demonstrate the JUS's ability to send high-mass payloads beyond LEO. One of my favorite shots I've ever taken. ____________________ It's been about a day (IRL it would have been over 2), and Orion is about halfway through its trip to Lunar orbit. The JUS, once far enough from the crew in Orion, lights its engines for the final time, putting it on a collision course with the Moon. Several hours after, the crew perform their midcourse corrections as well, and coast for the final hours as they approach the only natural satellite of Earth... Calbart: "Passin' behind it now. See you soon, Houston." Gene: "See you soon, Orion." The crew circularize behind the Moon, with their radios silent. There's practically no light behind the Moon. This darkness allows you to see the many, many, many stars of the Milky Way galaxy in the sky. Gene: Orion, this is Houston. Do you copy? Calbart: "Roger that Houston, we copy." Valentina: Holy smokes, we are the first living things to see an Earthrise since Apollo!" ____________________ Orion orbits the Moon 10 times, before the crew prepare to leave. "Service Module ignition in 3, 2, 1..." Bill: "Service module shutdown. Jebediah: "See you soon, Luna." ____________________ Earth fills the windows of Orion, as the mission nears it's end. Orion is a very robust capsule; because of the high payload capacity and spare mass of the Jupiter rockets compared to those of the Constellation Program, the capsule could have buffed life support, fuel, radiation protection, and general strength. This allows Orion to even land in lightning storms! ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ Merry Christmas to all you Kerbonauts out there!!! Search the skies tonight, and enjoy the big day tomorrow.

Thank you!!! And thank you again for such a fantastic mod!!! Strange, you're also experiencing the problem. I also don't actually mind it that much; I think it looks kinda cool with them both popping off? ____________________ Christmas special today!!! All I'll add is... I'm going to be recreating my profile picture.

They're stock! The stock Illuminator Mk2 tweakscaled as large as possible.

August 18th, 2013 Ares 6 | Freedom Crew Payload: Orion 005 ____________________ Crew: Commander Carbert Kline Pilot Danzer Krüger Flight Engineer Calbart Campbell Mission Specialist Bob Koch ____________________ On my sister's 5th birthday (IRL when this mission takes place, not cannon obviously), the 6th Jupiter-130 ever built thunders into the very early morning sky of the Floridan coast. Kirk was planned to be on this flight long before the events of STS-132, but he retired from spaceflight after watching a crewmate die right before his eyes. Bob was willing to take his place, only two months after his last (and the last) flight. I am stupid and didn't switch from APAS to LIDS To save on a bit of money, an old APAS soft capture mechanism from the Shuttle era will be flown for the final time. It isn't unsafe in any way; just a bit older and heavier. Orion does not manifest any payload, any ATV on this flight, so another 20-ton tank of water is flown. This is for extra safety on early flights with crew, so the new technology can be perfected as they continue to fly. Circularization burn. The Jupiter-130 CCS, as it falls to it's inevitable demise in the protective atmosphere of Earth below. Rendezvous burns... ...Until Freedom is finally in view! Luna watches the crew as they very slowly and carefully approach the massive orbital structure, with their soft capture ring already extended and ready. Soft capture! After a hard capture and a couple hours of equalizing pressure, the crew can board the station. The snacks delivered by the last flight are transferred into the many pressurized modules. After just 2 months and 2 days docked, the crew prepare to return home aboard Orion 004, sent in June. De-orbit burn. Orion rides down the "neon tube," into the pacific ocean below. The forward heatshield (and the docking mechanism, somehow???) pop off, revealing the drogue parachutes underneath. ____________________ Thank you all for reading! I have a bit of a Christmas gift coming up...

Yep! Thanks for checking; everything's fine. Finally finished with school for the winter! I can hopefully now follow up on my promise of "more posts more often." I'm sorry if you felt lied to when I said that; I meant to say that would happen once school was finished. ____________________ Ares 6 Today or tomorrow!